Cottage Grove, MN is a small town located in Washington County. It has a wide variety of political views and opinions among its residents. In Cottage Grove, the major parties represented are the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) and Republican Party (GOP). Each party fields local candidates that run for various offices, such as mayor, city council positions, or state representatives. The citizens of Cottage Grove have voted for both DFL and GOP candidates over the years, with recent elections seeing more voters choosing DFL candidates. Local forums and gatherings provide opportunities for citizens to discuss their views on politics and how to improve our community. Cottage Grove is an engaged community when it comes to politics and there is always a healthy debate about the merits of each side's views.
The political climate in Cottage Grove, MN is leaning conservative.
Washington County, MN is somewhat liberal. In Washington County, MN 53.5% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 44.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.3% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, Washington county remained moderately Democratic, 53.5% to 44.2%.
Washington county voted Democratic in the four most recent Presidential elections, after 2000 and 2004 went Republican.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Cottage Grove, MN is leaning conservative.
Washington County, Minnesota is somewhat liberal.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington Metro Area is moderately liberal.
Minnesota is leaning liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Cottage Grove, Minnesota: r r d d d d
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Cottage Grove, MN
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 1,505 contributions totaling $128,217 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $85 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 392 contributions totaling $64,199 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $164 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)